The .327 Federal Magnum IS still around, and there are factory loads still available for it.  While interest in the .327 has waxed and waned over the past decade, it sure is not as popular as the .357 magnum.  For those of you who haven’t heard too much about the cartridge:  Federal and Ruger introduced the cartridge in (I believe) 2008.  The bullet diameter is in actuality .312″/7.92mm.   (The only true .327″ diameter bullet I know is  8mm Lebel.  If our readers know otherwise, let me know in the comments.  Our Nathaniel F. notes that a few others, namely the 8x56R Steyr and 8x59RB Breda, come awfully close at .329″ respectively).  An improvement over the 32 H&R Magnum, .327 Federal Magnum cases can take pressures of up to 45,000 psi.  I’ve only handled transactions for .327’s in the past, (mostly Ruger revolvers), but never had the opportunity to fire one personally.   I was, therefore, curious to try one out when the opportunity arose.  This year, Henry USA provided that opportunity with one of their “Big Boy Steel” rifles in .327.

This “Female Gun Owner” series has focused on various aspects of concealed carry and firearms in general which I didn’t expect or hadn’t planned for. (View article 1, article 2, and article 3 here.)
Each article delves deeper into things that never crossed my mind as a woman feeding my ever-growing firearms addiction.

Of course, TFBTV got their hands on the Glock 19X before the press embargo date of January 2, and we got to run it through the wringer and compare it to the Gen 5 guns.  James give a brief overview and review of GLOCK’s newest pistol, the Glock 19X. The 19X will be released on January 22nd, 2018 with an MSRP of $749.  See below press release for more details, or watch James’ Review in the link above:

Next up for  the Big Freakin’ Cartridge Test is Korean manufacturer PMC’s clone of M193 Ball, called XP193. This ammunition features very uniform-looking external dimensions, attractively finished brass cases and projectile jackets, and a reasonable price. Interestingly, XP193 appears to use a lower drag 55gr bullet, possibly based on the Sierra 55gr, instead of the somewhat draggier Remington-style projectiles used by Federal, IMI, and others for their M193 clones. I like to use XP193 when I need full-power ammunition without spending too much.  Continuing on from the last installment, we are now looking at the velocity test results for the 20″ barrel (more on the 16″ later).

Next up for  the Big Freakin’ Cartridge Test is Korean manufacturer PMC’s clone of M193 Ball, called XP193. This ammunition features very uniform-looking external dimensions, attractively finished brass cases and projectile jackets, and a reasonable price. Interestingly, XP193 appears to use a lower drag 55gr bullet, possibly based on the Sierra 55gr, instead of the somewhat draggier Remington-style projectiles used by Federal, IMI, and others for their M193 clones. I like to use XP193 when I need full-power ammunition without spending too much. The test procedure was as follows:

Ah, the great Open vs Concealed Carry debate! Even the most blasé firearms conversation turns into a spirited discussion when the topic of “open carry” is raised.

Next up for  the Big Freakin’ Cartridge Test is Vympel’s budget 55gr FMJ load in .223 Remington, made in Amursk, Russia. This ammunition features a lacquered steel case, bimetal jacketed 55gr FMJ bullet and purple neck sealant. This is one of my favorite practice rounds due to its environmental toughness.  Continuing on from the last installment, we are now looking at the velocity test results for the 20″ barrel (more on the 16″ later). The test procedure was as follows:

In the last days of 1895, a contingent of mounted Rhodesian Police headed into the South African Republic (ZAR), also known as the Transvaal.  Their goal:  to initiate an uprising of “Uitlanders”-foreign miners-against the Boers and hand over control of the mineral-rich region to Cecil Rhodes and his Chartered Company.  The raid was an unmitigated disaster.  Despite having six Maxim machine guns, three artillery pieces and six hundred men, they were stopped cold near a Kopje called Doorknop.  Six thousand Boers had mobilized to head off the invasion.  The Boers took good cover, and with accurate fire inflicted over 10% casualties on the raiding force.  The “Jameson Force” surrendered on the morning of January 2nd.  Reported numbers for Boer casualties range from 1-4 men.  No uitlanders rose up.

Next up for  the Big Freakin’ Cartridge Test is Vympel’s budget 55gr FMJ load in .223 Remington, made in Amursk, Russia. This ammunition features a lacquered steel case, bimetal jacketed 55gr FMJ bullet and purple neck sealant. This is one of my favorite practice rounds due to its environmental toughness. The test procedure was as follows:

This is the third of a three part series where we discuss why the H&K MP5 is better than the SIG MPX, how the MPX is better than the MP5, and finally, today we talk about how the MP5 and the MPX BOTH kinda suck.

The first round up of the Big Freakin’ Cartridge Test is IMI’s take on the Black Hill’s classic heavy precision load, Mk. 262. Branded as “77gr Razor Core”, IMI’s version sports annealed 5.56mm NATO cases, neck and primer sealant, and of course 77gr Open Tip Match projectiles. Continuing on from the first installment, we are now looking at the velocity test results for the 16.1″ and 20″ barrels. The test procedure was as follows:

Mike (aka “Bloke on the Range”) takes his 7.5mm Swiss M82/29 revolver, the last military “Abadie”-type gateloading revolver, to the range and pits it against a 1940’s Smith and Wesson M&P in .38 S&W to see just how much worse gateloading is than a swing out cylinder. Spoiler – even with the Abadie system, where pulling the trigger turns the cylinder, it sucks. The question is how much!

The .224 Valkyrie may be the most interesting AR-15 round to come out in years, but the question many have been asking in my comments section is: Cool, but where are the rifles? Approaching the 2018 SHOT Show in Las Vegas Nevada, we are already starting to get answers, and one of them is the Savage MSR-15 Valkyrie. As the name suggests, this marks Savages first offering in the .224 Valkyrie round, and one of the first factory guns of this caliber.

The first round up for the Big Freakin’ Cartridge Test is IMI’s take on the Black Hill’s classic heavy precision load, Mk. 262. Branded as “77gr Razor Core”, IMI’s version sports annealed 5.56mm NATO cases, neck and primer sealant, and of course 77gr Open Tip Match projectiles. Based on reputation alone, I expected the best accuracy and relatively high muzzle velocities from this ammunition. The test procedure was as follows:

Through the Modern Calibers series of posts, we’ve covered 40 different rifle and pistol calibers, ranging from the diminutive .22 Winchester Magnum to full power calibers like the 7.62x51mm NATO. The series was intended to give readers a baseline picture of how different calibers compare to each other in performance, but its biggest limitation has been that it is entirely theoretical. The ballistics graphs in that series were created based on numbers spat out by a conventional calculator using nominal muzzle velocity and static ballistic coefficient figures – and while this is accurate enough to give us an idea of the performance of different rounds relative to one another, it is imperfect. Well then, it’s time to get empirical: Introducing the Big Freakin’ Cartridge Test.

Broadsword Group, LLC, the owners of Sharps Rifle Company (makers of the Relia-Bolt and .25-45 Sharps upper receivers for the AR-15), has been ordered to pay nearly three quarters of a million dollars to one of its founding members, Michael H. Blank, by the US District Court of Eastern Missouri. The case began when Blank alleged that Sharps Rifle Company owed him stake in the company and that they had walked away with intellectual property (IP) that he owned. Most significantly, perhaps, is the ruling on allegations of fraud against both Broadsword Group’s President and their CEO:

The day many tactical optic enthusiasts have been whispering about over the past year is finally here: Nightforce has just announced their long-rumored 1-8 power tactical scope, called the NX8. Nighforce describes the NX8 1-8×24 F1 as “a class leading, compact and lightweight riflescope optimized for short to mid-range shooting“. The company also released a full spec sheet, replicated below:

In March of 1963, a man named Lee Harvey Oswald purchased an M38 Carcano rifle and some quantity of ammunition from Klein’s Sporting Goods in Chicago. Oswald would later use this rifle and ammunition (or so the official narrative goes) to assassinate the then- President of the United States John F. Kennedy on November 22nd, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.

In this episode of TFBTV, James gives you a comprehensive overview of the Arsenal SAM7SF and the SBR version, the SAM7SF-K. These may be the best AKs ever produced, and we’ll tell you why. In addition to James, Ryan Hicks from Arsenal is there to explain the finer details, and notorious AK scholar Mishaco gives us a rundown of the select-fire military variant of the SAM7, the ARM9, featuring Bulgarian made ARM9 style buttstock and handguards, and the RPK style pistol grip. Arsenal calls this the “game changer” of AKs. So what improvement did Arsenal formulate to “change the AK game?” Arsenal’s radical development is, primarily, the introduction of an AK receiver that is forged before it is milled. In explaining why this feature makes this AK variant a “game-changer,” Arsenal offers this explanation: “Some companies that make milled receivers in the USA bypass the forging process, which can contribute to weak receivers, more prone to stress. The forging process strengthens the material and shapes uniform grain patterns in the steel. These forging patterns are engineered and produced to follow certain directions along the contour of the receiver to withstand high stress from the force and the movement of the working components. The forging process also eliminates any possibility of internal air pockets and cooling deformations that can impact and weaken the integrity of the receiver. While firing, the forged and milled receiver does not have the same deformation issues that are typical to stamped receiver models. […] The solid platform of the forged and milled receiver ensures superior accuracy. […] It is not by accident that all the critical components on the SAM7SF rifle, including the receiver, the barrel, the bolt head, the bolt carrier and trigger are formed through forging process, to give them the crucial strength, reliability, and longevity to last for generations of use.” Anyways, we hope you enjoy this overview.

Product Release

Jeff Forbush of 4Bush Weapon Refinishing has been doing some rather impressive work with his laser engraver. This is not your ordinary laser engraver. It is most likely a fiber laser. Typical laser engravers are CO2 lasers and while they can vaporize and eat away coatings like anodizing and cerakote. But Fiber Lasers can etch into metal as seen by Jeff’s stunning work. What looks like traditional engraving is actually done by a laser. While the laser does most of the work, there is a lot of prep work and designing as well as manipulating the laser settings to get this complex level of detail and multi level appearance.

Many mom ‘n pop shops, internet retailers, distributors and gun manufacturers have felt their fair share of censorship. Whether it is Facebook banning certain advertisements, YouTube defunding firearm channels or other marketplaces being unkind or unwelcoming, it is always more difficult to compete when you sell firearms and related goods. There are some sequestered markets that shooting enthusiasts can still utilize like Armslist, Gunbroker or GunsInternational, but even those have been occasionally politicized as of late.

The late 1800s and early 1900s are undoubtedly a period of American firearms design dominated by one man, John Moses Browning. But many of Browning’s contemporaries were no less able and men like Andrew Burgess, William Mason, John Pedersen, Frank Burton and T.C. Johnson were all responsible for ingenious and important designs.

The basic idea is, in fact, far from new: get an airsoft gun and transform it into the real McCoy, namely for a highly-illegal test project or for actual criminal purposes. The latter use was recently obvious when one such weapon was seized by officers of PMESP – Polícia Militar do Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo State Military Police). From the very superficial details coming from a low-quality video footage obtained by TFB – and from which the video grabs that follow were made – it was an M4-type airsoft gun transformed to fire 9x19mm ammo.

The US Army’s new sidearm, the SIG Sauer M17 Modular Handgun System, will soon be available for purchase on the civilian market. SIG’s Chief Marketing Officer Tom Taylor told Military.com about the decision, saying that about 5,000 of the full size M17 variant will be released to the civilian market sometime in early 2018:

Canton Ohio custom gunmaker Middlebranch Machine has released a teaser image of a new kind of suppressor, which they say is made of “carbon fiber composite” construction. Unlike previous efforts at making carbon fiber suppressors, Middlebranch Machine’s design does not seem to use a straight carbon-fiber tubing body, but appears to be 3D printed, instead. This is strongly suggested by the background of the image which shows a customized Glock with a unique looking suppressor in front of what is probably a Markforged Mark Two carbon fiber 3D printer. Mark Twos are some of the only carbon fiber 3D printing machines in the world.

The United States Marine Corps has finally officially announced its adoption of the 5.56mm M855A1 EPR round, developed in the late 2000s by the US Army, marking an important step towards ammunition commonality between the two services. Until now, the USMC has officially only used the legacy M855 round, and to a more limited extent the SOCOM-developed Mk. 318 SOST round, refusing to adopt the US Army’s new M855A1. The Marine Corps Times reports that the Corps’ Combat Development Command has begun procuring the round for stockpiles, with its official adoption coming in 2018:

Looking like the bizarre lovechild of a bolt-action rifle, a boat oar, and those weird prop rifles from the original Planet of the Apes movie, the Thorneycroft Carbine is one of the unsung “firsts” of the 20th Century. Specifically, this British repeater is the world’s first military bullpup rifle. Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons gives us a real-time look at one of the Thorneycroft prototypes, located at the Royal Armouries museum:

The Cold War is famous as the squaring off of two superpowers: The United States, and the Soviet Union, and their duel-by-proxy in Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas. The standard rifles of each side, as well, became proxies: On the Soviet side, the famous AK-47 (more properly AK and AKM), and on the US side the M14, FAL, and later the M16. As early as the late 1950s, however, the AK’s success led to it being copied by NATO member nations, and perhaps the very first of these was the Madsen LAR.

Those eagerly awaiting the market for the new .224 Valkyrie round have something to celebrate. Gunmaker JP Enterprises recently announced that they are now offering three different barrels for the new cartridge, in 20″ light, 20″ medium, and 22″ medium contours. All three barrels use the somewhat unusual “extra long” gas system, which is two inches longer than the standard “rifle length” gas system normally used with 20″ barrels. The longer gas system coupled with large diameter port settings reportedly increase dwell time while reducing the port pressure. More details on the barrels are available via a review from Recoil.